Purple Tears The Man Behind the Flames
by Blue-Spirit
Summary: Iori Yagami shares the story of his past with the moon...


Purple Tears- The Man Behind the Flames  
  
Iori Yagami... most people would quiver at the mere mention of my name. Hell, most people turn and leave at my mere sight. Except for Vice and Mature, but the Gods know that behind those venomous, evil smiles, judgment and a cautious claw await me. Just looking at the orochi blood riot inside of me as a tool of power. And people wonder why I'm so angry a every one?  
My life's a fucking mess. As I lie here, sitting on the frame of my hotel room, staring at the larger than life moon above I can only await for tomorrows upcoming fight. That's probably were I really am alive... or at least where I'm myself. Sure you say, savage blood relishing bastard, but, in the end its all I got left. I can't help but smirk at it. You gotta love the irony of life. The only thing I can hold on to is only available because of a millennial curse cast upon my very own blood. To answer the popular question, that's what's so funny after a fight that makes me burst into uncontrollable laughter.  
I wasn't always like this, you know. Damn, where's those damned cigarettes?  
There used to be a time when things were different. Less... weird, I guess. It happened at some stage after my parents' deaths and my first meeting with Kyo. Don't worry I'll come back to Kusanagi in a moment. Not a soul knows this but after that I just tried to get a life you know, drop the whole tough guy wrapped in life's shackles act. I spent much time going from orphanage to orphanage, getting kicked out –or "released" as they called it- only to wound up in a foreign bed looking at the white ceiling. Empty. Just like my existence. It just went on and on till I was about fifteen. After leaving the room I currently slept in, another orphanage room obviously, I ran out into the starless night and, carrying only a wad of cash I stole, a broken soul and a death wish. It sounds kinda corny coming from me doesn't it?  
Anyway, so I got on a bus headed for Osaka and got a cheap motel room there where I dwelled for about two months, during which I managed to get a job as a bouncer on a couple of nightclubs. Working during the night gave me the sensation that I belonged there. The moon always staring at me from above the insanely tall buildings. Trust me though, I saw much during my days as a bouncer and tried enough of it to know that darkness is no home, it's the lack of light. Drugs, women, fighting, you name it. It felt like becoming one with the shadows that haunted my past and tormented my present. But I think I'm going astray here. I even tried to go to school once.  
I got curious, so what?  
You actually wanna hear about it!? Guess I can't blame you, it is kind of unusual in me. I guess it wasn't as much about schooling myself as it was about school itself. I don't know what all the fuss was really about anyway. Needless to say, I wind up with the wrong people who were just right for me. That's right I joined a band and after... taking over I made myself popular over fighting. You're probably wondering how I could actually got into the school without having gone to it ever before, huh? Well... actually I think I'll keep that one detail for myself.  
Anyway, after a few effortless brawls I grew bored again. An introverted redhead I became. That is until she came into sight. What? You thought you'd get the story of my life without a "she"? News flash: Iori Yagami has a heart. It beats low these days, but it is there, you know.  
She was the tranquil, pretty type. But, like me, she didn't smile for free. Like me, she was a broken soul. Of course she probably didn't go through the crap I went through in my life, but we were bonded by one single thing. We both hated life's guts. One would think I'd actually got her for a time then got a broken heart and turned me into the sorry fuck I am these days. Far from it.  
She died only months after I had known her. The kind of relationship –if you wanna call it that- that we shared was a distant one. I don't think we ever exchanged words. But my eyes would just wander off to hers whenever she was around. I couldn't help her. She had some disease I never heard of. I've never been a very well read guy, in case you didn't know. But the sight of her, just the looks she gave me screamed at me at the top of her voice. "You who has a chance", she would say, "Find the meaning of this life". That's quite a powerful message coming from a stare. So powerful that the day she died, I actually shed tears. That's right. I cried. I can still taste the raindrops of that gray day when she was buried. A most curious message, which I read once everyone had left, was inscribed in her tombstone: The truth can only be found in the depths of darkness. That was her dying wish. For those words to be in her stone. It might be a long shot but I can't help but wonder if those words were for me.  
I left school soon after without saying a word. Motivated only by Yuka's enigmatic words I tried to sink into darkness. I began, during that period of my life, to embrace the nature of my Orochi blood and its dangerous blood riot. But, as I fought my way through the worst Japanese districts I couldn't find the truth. I lacked something vital. I needed to find the meaning of my sorry existence. Until it hit me point blank in the face.  
Kyo Kusanagi.  
The only one who could pose a challenge. My dream match. He is all I hate and yet all I need. I'll let you in on a little secret here: I could never bring myself to kill Kyo Kusanagi. The reason is simple. My life would loose its meaning. That's why I'm at KOF every year, I just feel at home there. Behind every blow we trade, every flame that bursts out of my worn hands brings me a little closer to the truth. To the true meaning of my present state. I try to cover it up with the fancy Yagami-Kusanagi vendetta, but in the end its all about myself. You see, Kusanagi is probably the only person I know, with whom I am myself. His eyes do not judge me in the battlefield. Its just Kyo and I. He knows me better than I know myself and I know him better than he knows himself. Yet we share that unspoken pact in which we keep each other's life to ourselves. The fight happens very far from the battlefield. It rumbles in our souls.  
I just wish things were a little different for me. I only need to look into the eyes if guys like Kusanagi, the lone wolf; Terry Bogard or even the zealous Kaphwan freak. They have something to come back to, no matter how the fight turns out, they will always find the warmth of their loved ones. But not me, I find it unconceivable to loose a fight. It would mean my ultimate form of death.  
That was pretty deep wasn't it? Well I guess its hard not to be when you've seen as much as I have. It's the truth though. Not all of us are born lucky.  
But no point in self pitying myself. Life in the muddy river is not so bad a life if life is once. Right?  
So that's that. I'm out of time. I gotta get some sleep. The roster says Ikari Team for tomorrow. They're a funny bunch. They will do for now, at least until I meet Kusanagi. I'll see him in the finals I guess.  
To all who have hurt me... to all who have taught me... to those I have outskilled... and to those to are yet to meet me... Tsuki wo miru tabi omoidase! 


End file.
